![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
SIFF 2013: All the rest
Sun, Jun. 9th, 2013 07:53 pmI had hoped to do pretty intense capsule reviews of all the other films I saw this year at SIFF, but clearly that hasn't happened. If I maintain this idea that I'm going to do them, they'll never get done. Here are nutshell reviews of the other films I saw with relevant notes. Those titles with asterisks are especially recommended.
A Lady in Paris: Jeanne Moreau is an older woman whom an Estonian woman is hired to care for in the City of Light. Moreau is marvelous, supported by a strong cast. The relationship between her character and that of her caretaker is realistic and well rounded. While I enjoyed the film, I didn't buy the ending; I didn't feel like it was earned. Also, the implied romantic relationship between the caretaker and Moreau's patron was perhaps too mildly touched upon to have the weight we seemed to be expected to give it. I had higher hopes than the film could fulfill.
Ludwig II: Sumptuous German biopic of Bavaria's mad king. Exploring his inability to deal with politics, power, and responsibility, the film focuses on his love of the arts and his retreat from a world which he has no ability to negotiate, neither human relationships nor the rule of a nation. I don't think he was crazy; rather, I think he had the worst case of denial in the history of the world. His poor brother--and his nation--paid the price. Sabin Tambrea was nominated for best actor at SIFF--didn't win, but he gives a terrific performance. The film felt a little overlong to me, but it did make me want to go read up about the real man and his history.
***Wolf Children: Charming anime film about a woman who falls in love with a man who transforms into a wolf and who is left to raise his two wolf children. Her job becomes helping them learn to live with their double identities and to decide what kind of lives they will lead. It's beautiful to look at, and in its way, quite universal. One of the better films of the festival for me and recommended.
Jump: A thriller set in Northern Ireland that weaves together three stories that come all climax on New Year's Eve. The film plays with its chronological order and takes its audience places I never expected to go. It was funny and clever and quite serious in some spots. I'd rate it average, but it was cool to see the city of Derry as one of the film's characters.
***The Little Tin Man: Sick of being cast only as an elf for Santa, a dwarf decides to take his acting career into his own hands when he tries to audition for Martin Scorsese's remake of The Wizard of Oz. Initially funded via Kickstarter, this charming, low-budget comedy had a big message delivered with humor and compassion: pursue your dreams. Aaron Beelner plays Herman, our eponymous hero, with great heart. Q&A after the film showed him and the director to be very smart and very committed to the picture. Met Beelner briefly after the film; he was very cool, very smart. This guy's got a future.
***Twenty Feet from Stardom: My initial note about this movie was that it was a "documentary about backup singers to the stars," but it's so much more than that. In some ways, it's the history of rock'n'roll told from a completely different perspective. It's an exuberant, frank, unvarnished, and uplifting chronicle of the voices we all know but the names we never learned: Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Tata Vega and others who sang back-up (and sometimes lead without our knowing it) on the soundtracks of our lives, songs like "Gimme Shelter," "Da Doo Ron Ron," and so many others, and with artists like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Lou Reed, Madonna, and more. Merry Clayton and Tata Vega were present to answer questions after the film. I've never seen or heard the kind of wild, standing ovation at SIFF that these women got when they arrived on the stage. And they both sang. It was awesome. It won the Golden Space Needle for Best Documentary and no doubt about it. When this film is released, DON'T MISS IT.
***Fanie Fourie's Lobola: Cross-cultural romance set in South Africa about a man who must negotiate his bride's lobola, or dowry. Fanie is Stefaans, an Afrikaans custom-car designer living in his mother's garage and trying to make money with his art. He's not doing so well. His brother Sarel (pronounced Sorrel) is a B pop star and kind of an ass; at his bachelor party he dares his brother to ask out the next woman who walks in the door. It's Dinky, a gorgeous aspiring entrepreneur who happens to be Zulu. He asks her to go to his brother's wedding with him just to shut his brother up. She agrees only if he'll come to lunch with her father to keep Daddy from hounding her about dating. The expected hijinks ensue--but with a difference. The film takes on the lingering effects of prejudice and apartheid with both courage and humor--and in three languages. It's completely charming (even if it is another gorgeous-woman-falls-for-schlumpy-guy comedy), and Zethu Dhlomo, who plays Dinky, is luminous in her first film role. We'll be seeing more of her. The director says he's had distribution offers and the movie won SIFF's Golden Space Needle for best picture of the festival. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED.
A Lady in Paris: Jeanne Moreau is an older woman whom an Estonian woman is hired to care for in the City of Light. Moreau is marvelous, supported by a strong cast. The relationship between her character and that of her caretaker is realistic and well rounded. While I enjoyed the film, I didn't buy the ending; I didn't feel like it was earned. Also, the implied romantic relationship between the caretaker and Moreau's patron was perhaps too mildly touched upon to have the weight we seemed to be expected to give it. I had higher hopes than the film could fulfill.
Ludwig II: Sumptuous German biopic of Bavaria's mad king. Exploring his inability to deal with politics, power, and responsibility, the film focuses on his love of the arts and his retreat from a world which he has no ability to negotiate, neither human relationships nor the rule of a nation. I don't think he was crazy; rather, I think he had the worst case of denial in the history of the world. His poor brother--and his nation--paid the price. Sabin Tambrea was nominated for best actor at SIFF--didn't win, but he gives a terrific performance. The film felt a little overlong to me, but it did make me want to go read up about the real man and his history.
***Wolf Children: Charming anime film about a woman who falls in love with a man who transforms into a wolf and who is left to raise his two wolf children. Her job becomes helping them learn to live with their double identities and to decide what kind of lives they will lead. It's beautiful to look at, and in its way, quite universal. One of the better films of the festival for me and recommended.
Jump: A thriller set in Northern Ireland that weaves together three stories that come all climax on New Year's Eve. The film plays with its chronological order and takes its audience places I never expected to go. It was funny and clever and quite serious in some spots. I'd rate it average, but it was cool to see the city of Derry as one of the film's characters.
***The Little Tin Man: Sick of being cast only as an elf for Santa, a dwarf decides to take his acting career into his own hands when he tries to audition for Martin Scorsese's remake of The Wizard of Oz. Initially funded via Kickstarter, this charming, low-budget comedy had a big message delivered with humor and compassion: pursue your dreams. Aaron Beelner plays Herman, our eponymous hero, with great heart. Q&A after the film showed him and the director to be very smart and very committed to the picture. Met Beelner briefly after the film; he was very cool, very smart. This guy's got a future.
***Twenty Feet from Stardom: My initial note about this movie was that it was a "documentary about backup singers to the stars," but it's so much more than that. In some ways, it's the history of rock'n'roll told from a completely different perspective. It's an exuberant, frank, unvarnished, and uplifting chronicle of the voices we all know but the names we never learned: Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Tata Vega and others who sang back-up (and sometimes lead without our knowing it) on the soundtracks of our lives, songs like "Gimme Shelter," "Da Doo Ron Ron," and so many others, and with artists like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Lou Reed, Madonna, and more. Merry Clayton and Tata Vega were present to answer questions after the film. I've never seen or heard the kind of wild, standing ovation at SIFF that these women got when they arrived on the stage. And they both sang. It was awesome. It won the Golden Space Needle for Best Documentary and no doubt about it. When this film is released, DON'T MISS IT.
***Fanie Fourie's Lobola: Cross-cultural romance set in South Africa about a man who must negotiate his bride's lobola, or dowry. Fanie is Stefaans, an Afrikaans custom-car designer living in his mother's garage and trying to make money with his art. He's not doing so well. His brother Sarel (pronounced Sorrel) is a B pop star and kind of an ass; at his bachelor party he dares his brother to ask out the next woman who walks in the door. It's Dinky, a gorgeous aspiring entrepreneur who happens to be Zulu. He asks her to go to his brother's wedding with him just to shut his brother up. She agrees only if he'll come to lunch with her father to keep Daddy from hounding her about dating. The expected hijinks ensue--but with a difference. The film takes on the lingering effects of prejudice and apartheid with both courage and humor--and in three languages. It's completely charming (even if it is another gorgeous-woman-falls-for-schlumpy-guy comedy), and Zethu Dhlomo, who plays Dinky, is luminous in her first film role. We'll be seeing more of her. The director says he's had distribution offers and the movie won SIFF's Golden Space Needle for best picture of the festival. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED.